changes to normal.dot

Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and close it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot), I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.

Dianah,
It has been reported that the NAV Office plug-in sometimes causes this
problem, try disabling it . It is one of the options from within NAV.
It could also be a malfunctioning Add-in. Look in Tools - Templates and
Add-ins. The only way to isolate the malfunctioning add-in is to remove
them all, add them one by one, start up again and see which one is the
offender.
Luc

"Dianah" schreef in bericht
...
Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and close it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot), I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it
that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.

I'm not using NAV. I use AVG, but I'll try to disable it from scanning
emails and add it back. I also have pdf maker as an add-in for Word, so
I'll do the same with it. Thanks for the tips.

I mention the emails because I'm using Outlook and recently re-enabled using
Word as the word processor for it as I wanted some of Word's features back
.... I use them too frequently. Outlook therefore, also prompts me with
changes being made to normal.dot. I can't seem to escape it.

Here's hoping. Diana

"Luc" wrote in message
...
Dianah,
It has been reported that the NAV Office plug-in sometimes causes this
problem, try disabling it . It is one of the options from within NAV.
It could also be a malfunctioning Add-in. Look in Tools - Templates and
Add-ins. The only way to isolate the malfunctioning add-in is to remove
them all, add them one by one, start up again and see which one is the
offender.
Luc

"Dianah" schreef in bericht
...
Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made
to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to
save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and close
it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot), I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it
that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.

Using Word as your email editor in Outlook can, I believe, also have this
effect and causes other problems as well.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Dianah" wrote in message
news:bqlzc.7504$eA.528@clgrps13...
I'm not using NAV. I use AVG, but I'll try to disable it from scanning
emails and add it back. I also have pdf maker as an add-in for Word, so
I'll do the same with it. Thanks for the tips.

I mention the emails because I'm using Outlook and recently re-enabled
using
Word as the word processor for it as I wanted some of Word's features back
... I use them too frequently. Outlook therefore, also prompts me with
changes being made to normal.dot. I can't seem to escape it.

Here's hoping. Diana

"Luc" wrote in message
...
Dianah,
It has been reported that the NAV Office plug-in sometimes causes this
problem, try disabling it . It is one of the options from within NAV.
It could also be a malfunctioning Add-in. Look in Tools - Templates and
Add-ins. The only way to isolate the malfunctioning add-in is to remove
them all, add them one by one, start up again and see which one is the
offender.
Luc

"Dianah" schreef in bericht
...
Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made
to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to
save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to
save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and
close
it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot),
I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it
that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.

Dianah:
Here's some info on the Normal Template. I suggest you follow the
instructions to delete your Normal.dot and Word will create a new clean one.
Good luck. Stan

Why it’s happening

All documents in Word are based on templates. A template is a
special kind of Word file with the .dot file extension (instead of .doc,
which is used for documents). The template can contain text (such as a
letterhead), special styles (such as those that might be suitable for an
academic paper or a newsletter), and custom toolbars, macros, and shortcut
key assignments that make it easier to prepare a certain kind of document.
(See also What do Templates and Add-ins store?)

The blank document that you start with when you open Word
(“Document1”) and all documents that you create by pressing the New button
on the Standard toolbar or choosing “Blank Document” in the File New dialog
are based on the Normal.dot template, which is the “global” template that
also (by default) stores most of your customizations, such as changes to
styles or toolbars.

If you change a style in Normal.dot (for example, if you change
the default font, which means that you actually change the font of the
Normal style) or if you change the default margins or page size, that change
affects every blank document you create from then on. Needless to say, if
you save text in Normal.dot, that text will appear in every blank document
you create.

It is a mystery how users manage to save text in Normal.dot, but
if your “blank” documents suddenly start opening with the text of an old
document in them, this is what you have done! There are basically two ways
to solve this problem.

The simplest fix: cleaning up Normal.dot
In order to delete the extraneous text from Normal.dot, you must
first locate the Normal.dot file and open it. There are two main ways to do
this.

Method 1
In Windows Explorer, press Ctrl+F, and search for Normal.dot. Or
select Start | Find | Files or folders, and search for Normal.dot. In
Windows XP, the folder that contains Normal.dot is a "hidden" folder. In
order to find Normal.dot, you will therefore need to go to Tools | Folder
Options, select the View tab, and check the radio button for "Show hidden
files and folders."

Depending on your Windows Explorer settings, the search results
may not display the “.dot” extension as shown in the screen capture below,
but may only display the Word “Normal”. Either way, once you have found it,
don’t double-click on the file; this will just create a new document based
on it. Instead, open it by right-clicking on the file and choosing Open.



Note that is actually much better – for all sorts of reasons,
one being that it makes it easier to find the files you want, another being
that it makes you less prone to virus attack – to set up Windows Explorer so
that it does display all file extensions. If you have already done so, the
Windows Find dialog will display “Normal.dot” in the search results rather
than “Normal” as shown above. Unfortunately, by default, file extensions are
hidden. To change this, select Tools + Folder Options (or depending on your
Windows version, View + Folder Options, or View + Options); select the
“View” tab, and de-select “Hide file extensions for known file types”.

Method 2
Alternatively:

1.
Select Tools | Options; and on the File Locations tab,
double-click on “User Templates” (or single-click on “User Templates” and
choose “Modify”).


If you are using Word 2000 or earlier versions, this
dialog displays the path in which your custom templates are stored (where it
says “Folder Name”). Press Ctrl + C to copy the path, and close the dialog.


If you are using Word 2002, finding the path has been
made unnecessarily difficult, because the “Folder name” box in the “Modify
location” dialog shows a blank. One way to get the complete path is to click
the down arrow on the “Look in” box, which will display the folder tree. You
can then copy down the path by hand and type it into the "File name" box in
the File Open dialog. An easier way to get the path is to select Properties
on the Tools menu in that dialog. Drag across the path shown on the General
tab and press Ctrl+C to copy it. You can then paste it into the File Open
dialog.


2.
Select File | Open (or press Ctrl+O); and in the Open
dialog:


If you are using Word 2000 or earlier versions, press
Ctrl+V to paste the path you copied earlier, then press Return. This takes
you straight to the right folder.


If you are using Word 2002, browse to the folder you
noted down previously.


3.
Where it says “Files of Type,” you may need to select
“Document Templates (*.dot)” in order to see Normal.dot

4.
Open the file called Normal.dot (depending on how you've
configured Windows Explorer, it may just display as “Normal”, without
showing the extension).




Once you have opened Normal.dot, delete the text in it, save the
file and close. The next time you press New you should get a Blank Document.

Creating a new Normal.dot from scratch
If you think you may not be able to return Normal.dot to its
original state – that is, if you think in addition to extraneous text there
may be modifications of margins or styles and you’re not sure how to put
these back the way they were – you may want to start over with a new
Normal.dot just the way it came out of the box. Especially if you have not
been using Word very long or haven’t customized it much, this may be the
preferable alternative.

If Word does not find the Normal.dot template at startup, it
will create a new one. You could assure this by deleting Normal.dot, but it
is usually better just to rename it. Close Word and, in Windows Explorer
(using Find or Search if necessary), find Normal.dot and rename it. (You can
call it anything you want, but Normal.old and Oldnormal.dot are frequently
suggested.) Then restart Word. It will create a new Normal.dot and your
Document1 and subsequent Blank Documents will be blank again.

Salvaging your customizations
Before you decide to rename Normal.dot, you should be aware of
what you may be losing by doing this. All templates can store a variety of
customizations, and if you haven’t explicitly chosen to store them
elsewhere, those customizations will be stored in Normal.dot. For a complete
rundown on these, see What Do Templates and Add-ins store? Even if you haven
’t heavily customized Word, you may have added some toolbar buttons or
created AutoText. In addition to toolbar customizations and AutoText
entries, templates store macros, keyboard shortcuts, styles, and custom
toolbars. Some of these can be copied from one template to another; some can
’t.

What you can salvage easily
If you look at the Organizer (accessible through Tools |
Templates and Add-ins or Format | Style), you will see that it has four
tabs: Styles, Toolbars, AutoText, and Macro Project Items. As you might
deduce, using the Organizer, you can transfer styles, custom toolbars,
AutoText entries, and macros from your renamed (old) Normal.dot file to the
fresh new one.

What you can salvage, but not so easily


1.
Note that “custom toolbars” are different from toolbar
customizations. If you’ve created a new toolbar from scratch and put your
custom buttons on it, you can copy that using the Organizer. But if you’ve
just added more buttons to the built-in toolbars, you’ll have to temporarily
copy those buttons onto a new custom toolbar before you can use the
Organizer to copy that to the new template. (The same applies to the
right-click shortcut menus).

2.
You can't use the Organizer to copy keyboard
customizations, but you can copy most keyboard customisations between
templates using Chris Woodman's Shortcut Organizer.

3.
(This one is for advanced users only.) You can't copy
macros that are stored in your ThisDocument module, or in any class module
(including UserForm modules), using the Organizer; but you can go into the
VB Editor (press Alt+F11), and using the Project Explorer, either export and
then import the modules (select the module and right-click); or copy and
paste the code between templates.


A trial run
Only you can decide whether you have too much to lose by
renaming Normal.dot and starting over. But you can get a preview of what
Word will be like with a new Normal.dot by starting Word in a special way.
In Word 2002 you can access what is called Word Safe Mode by holding down
the Ctrl key while you start Word. In previous versions, the same thing is
accomplished by using a “startup switch.” You can read more about startup
switches in the Help topic “Control what happens when you start Word.” To
start Word without any templates, add-ins, or user settings (and with the
default Normal.dot), you use the /a switch. Here’s how:

1.
On the Windows Start menu, click Run.

2.
Type “Winword.exe /a” (without the quotes) and press
Return. Note the space before the forward slash.

Alternatively, you can enter the full path to Word (or
click Browse to locate it), although it shouldn't be necessary to enter the
full path unless you are running multiple versions of Word. If you do enter
the full path, then you do need to include quotes around the path, for
example:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe" /a


Help us solve a mystery
How does it happen that people who have never heard of
Normal.dot and don’t know how to find it, open it, or edit it somehow manage
to save a document in or as Normal.dot? It seems very unlikely. Is this a
bug, or is there some rational explanation? One MVP has theorized that
perhaps Word 2000/2002 users are accidentally selecting Normal.dot from the
History list in the File Open dialog, but many users who have this problem
are using Word 97, which doesn’t have the History. If you have had this
experience (and you probably have, or you wouldn’t be reading this article)
and have any ideas about how it could have happened, we’d like to hear from
you. Please pass your theories on to our Webmaster.













"Dianah" wrote in message
...
Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and close it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot), I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it
that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.

Stanley, I'm sure you were trying to be helpful, but it would have been much
more effective to point Dianah to
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/...ocNotBlank.htm instead of quoting
the text of it here (without attribution). Not only is the article easier to
read (and complete with screen shots), but doing this would have (a) allowed
you to post a 1KB message instead of a 38KB one and (b) avoided the
appearance of plagiarism (note that the article you quoted is protected by
copyright).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Stanley S. Glazer" wrote in message
...
Dianah:
Here's some info on the Normal Template. I suggest you follow the
instructions to delete your Normal.dot and Word will create a new clean
one.
Good luck. Stan

Why it’s happening

All documents in Word are based on templates. A template is a
special kind of Word file with the .dot file extension (instead of .doc,
which is used for documents). The template can contain text (such as a
letterhead), special styles (such as those that might be suitable for an
academic paper or a newsletter), and custom toolbars, macros, and shortcut
key assignments that make it easier to prepare a certain kind of document.
(See also What do Templates and Add-ins store?)

The blank document that you start with when you open Word
(“Document1”) and all documents that you create by pressing the New button
on the Standard toolbar or choosing “Blank Document” in the File New
dialog
are based on the Normal.dot template, which is the “global” template that
also (by default) stores most of your customizations, such as changes to
styles or toolbars.

If you change a style in Normal.dot (for example, if you
change
the default font, which means that you actually change the font of the
Normal style) or if you change the default margins or page size, that
change
affects every blank document you create from then on. Needless to say, if
you save text in Normal.dot, that text will appear in every blank document
you create.

It is a mystery how users manage to save text in Normal.dot,
but
if your “blank” documents suddenly start opening with the text of an old
document in them, this is what you have done! There are basically two ways
to solve this problem.

The simplest fix: cleaning up Normal.dot
In order to delete the extraneous text from Normal.dot, you
must
first locate the Normal.dot file and open it. There are two main ways to
do
this.

Method 1
In Windows Explorer, press Ctrl+F, and search for Normal.dot.
Or
select Start | Find | Files or folders, and search for Normal.dot. In
Windows XP, the folder that contains Normal.dot is a "hidden" folder. In
order to find Normal.dot, you will therefore need to go to Tools | Folder
Options, select the View tab, and check the radio button for "Show hidden
files and folders."

Depending on your Windows Explorer settings, the search
results
may not display the “.dot” extension as shown in the screen capture below,
but may only display the Word “Normal”. Either way, once you have found
it,
don’t double-click on the file; this will just create a new document based
on it. Instead, open it by right-clicking on the file and choosing Open.



Note that is actually much better – for all sorts of reasons,
one being that it makes it easier to find the files you want, another
being
that it makes you less prone to virus attack – to set up Windows Explorer
so
that it does display all file extensions. If you have already done so, the
Windows Find dialog will display “Normal.dot” in the search results rather
than “Normal” as shown above. Unfortunately, by default, file extensions
are
hidden. To change this, select Tools + Folder Options (or depending on
your
Windows version, View + Folder Options, or View + Options); select the
“View” tab, and de-select “Hide file extensions for known file types”.

Method 2
Alternatively:

1.
Select Tools | Options; and on the File Locations tab,
double-click on “User Templates” (or single-click on “User Templates” and
choose “Modify”).


If you are using Word 2000 or earlier versions,
this
dialog displays the path in which your custom templates are stored (where
it
says “Folder Name”). Press Ctrl + C to copy the path, and close the
dialog.


If you are using Word 2002, finding the path has
been
made unnecessarily difficult, because the “Folder name” box in the “Modify
location” dialog shows a blank. One way to get the complete path is to
click
the down arrow on the “Look in” box, which will display the folder tree.
You
can then copy down the path by hand and type it into the "File name" box
in
the File Open dialog. An easier way to get the path is to select
Properties
on the Tools menu in that dialog. Drag across the path shown on the
General
tab and press Ctrl+C to copy it. You can then paste it into the File Open
dialog.


2.
Select File | Open (or press Ctrl+O); and in the Open
dialog:


If you are using Word 2000 or earlier versions,
press
Ctrl+V to paste the path you copied earlier, then press Return. This takes
you straight to the right folder.


If you are using Word 2002, browse to the folder
you
noted down previously.


3.
Where it says “Files of Type,” you may need to select
“Document Templates (*.dot)” in order to see Normal.dot

4.
Open the file called Normal.dot (depending on how you've
configured Windows Explorer, it may just display as “Normal”, without
showing the extension).




Once you have opened Normal.dot, delete the text in it, save
the
file and close. The next time you press New you should get a Blank
Document.

Creating a new Normal.dot from scratch
If you think you may not be able to return Normal.dot to its
original state – that is, if you think in addition to extraneous text
there
may be modifications of margins or styles and you’re not sure how to put
these back the way they were – you may want to start over with a new
Normal.dot just the way it came out of the box. Especially if you have not
been using Word very long or haven’t customized it much, this may be the
preferable alternative.

If Word does not find the Normal.dot template at startup, it
will create a new one. You could assure this by deleting Normal.dot, but
it
is usually better just to rename it. Close Word and, in Windows Explorer
(using Find or Search if necessary), find Normal.dot and rename it. (You
can
call it anything you want, but Normal.old and Oldnormal.dot are frequently
suggested.) Then restart Word. It will create a new Normal.dot and your
Document1 and subsequent Blank Documents will be blank again.

Salvaging your customizations
Before you decide to rename Normal.dot, you should be aware of
what you may be losing by doing this. All templates can store a variety of
customizations, and if you haven’t explicitly chosen to store them
elsewhere, those customizations will be stored in Normal.dot. For a
complete
rundown on these, see What Do Templates and Add-ins store? Even if you
haven
’t heavily customized Word, you may have added some toolbar buttons or
created AutoText. In addition to toolbar customizations and AutoText
entries, templates store macros, keyboard shortcuts, styles, and custom
toolbars. Some of these can be copied from one template to another; some
can
’t.

What you can salvage easily
If you look at the Organizer (accessible through Tools |
Templates and Add-ins or Format | Style), you will see that it has four
tabs: Styles, Toolbars, AutoText, and Macro Project Items. As you might
deduce, using the Organizer, you can transfer styles, custom toolbars,
AutoText entries, and macros from your renamed (old) Normal.dot file to
the
fresh new one.

What you can salvage, but not so easily


1.
Note that “custom toolbars” are different from toolbar
customizations. If you’ve created a new toolbar from scratch and put your
custom buttons on it, you can copy that using the Organizer. But if you’ve
just added more buttons to the built-in toolbars, you’ll have to
temporarily
copy those buttons onto a new custom toolbar before you can use the
Organizer to copy that to the new template. (The same applies to the
right-click shortcut menus).

2.
You can't use the Organizer to copy keyboard
customizations, but you can copy most keyboard customisations between
templates using Chris Woodman's Shortcut Organizer.

3.
(This one is for advanced users only.) You can't copy
macros that are stored in your ThisDocument module, or in any class module
(including UserForm modules), using the Organizer; but you can go into the
VB Editor (press Alt+F11), and using the Project Explorer, either export
and
then import the modules (select the module and right-click); or copy and
paste the code between templates.


A trial run
Only you can decide whether you have too much to lose by
renaming Normal.dot and starting over. But you can get a preview of what
Word will be like with a new Normal.dot by starting Word in a special way.
In Word 2002 you can access what is called Word Safe Mode by holding down
the Ctrl key while you start Word. In previous versions, the same thing is
accomplished by using a “startup switch.” You can read more about startup
switches in the Help topic “Control what happens when you start Word.” To
start Word without any templates, add-ins, or user settings (and with the
default Normal.dot), you use the /a switch. Here’s how:

1.
On the Windows Start menu, click Run.

2.
Type “Winword.exe /a” (without the quotes) and press
Return. Note the space before the forward slash.

Alternatively, you can enter the full path to Word (or
click Browse to locate it), although it shouldn't be necessary to enter
the
full path unless you are running multiple versions of Word. If you do
enter
the full path, then you do need to include quotes around the path, for
example:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe"
/a


Help us solve a mystery
How does it happen that people who have never heard of
Normal.dot and don’t know how to find it, open it, or edit it somehow
manage
to save a document in or as Normal.dot? It seems very unlikely. Is this a
bug, or is there some rational explanation? One MVP has theorized that
perhaps Word 2000/2002 users are accidentally selecting Normal.dot from
the
History list in the File Open dialog, but many users who have this problem
are using Word 97, which doesn’t have the History. If you have had this
experience (and you probably have, or you wouldn’t be reading this
article)
and have any ideas about how it could have happened, we’d like to hear
from
you. Please pass your theories on to our Webmaster.













"Dianah" wrote in message
...
Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made
to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to
save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and close
it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot), I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it
that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.

On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 23:13:58 -0600, "Dianah"
wrote:

Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to save changes made to
normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot it will prompt to save.
Now, I don't even have to open a document and I'm being prompted to save
changes. I've answered yes and no. When I later reopen Word and close it
again (with a previous yes or no (to saving changes to normal.dot), I'm
being told that there are again - changes to normal.dot. What is it that's
changing normal.dot everytime I open Word.


Hey! You jinxed me!

sf
yeah, what's up with that?

both index fingers forming a cross (lower case t type),
warding you off...


Practice safe eating - always use condiments

Update upon open or Update upon Save turned on?
If you have automatic update of fields turned on in
Options, and there are any fields in the template, Word
can ask you if you want ot save the changes. Simply
updating fields (or anything else) is a change to Word,
whether you changed anything or not.


"Dianah" wrote in message

Everytime I open word then close it, I'm prompted to
save changes
made to normal.dot. What's with that.

I've accepted that if I make changes to normal.dot
it will prompt to
save. Now, I don't even have to open a document and
I'm being
prompted to save changes. I've answered yes and no.
When I later
reopen Word and close it again (with a previous yes
or no (to saving
changes to normal.dot), I'm being told that there
are again -
changes to normal.dot. What is it that's changing
normal.dot
everytime I open Word.